Life is Like a Journey – Chapter 99
by Little PandaVolume 3: Transition
Blood Transfusion
Being able to live in her memories is what makes me happiest
After rushing to the hospital, she started ward rounds, followed by morning meetings, then outpatient clinic. It wasn’t until the afternoon that Lu Qingshi finally had a chance to take out the fruit box Gu Yanzhi had brought her from the refrigerator to eat.
Yu Gui sat on the table in front of her, picking up a toothpick to spear a piece. After going through life and death together, she and Lu Qingshi were no longer at odds, their relationship had gotten much better, though of course Lu Qingshi never held back when scolding or criticism was needed.
“Are you two together?” she asked while chewing fruit, noticing her seemingly good mood, secretly gossiping.
Hao Renjie perked up his ears, while Lu Qingshi passed the fruit box to her colleagues, everyone sharing it.
“Hmm…” she didn’t say directly, but there was a trace of sweet smile on her face.
Hao Renjie came over and speared a dragon fruit, tears streaming down his face: “Boss, you’re not being fair, we said we’d stay single together until we’re old, but you secretly added oil…” (Chinese slang for starting a relationship)
“What nonsense,” Lu Qingshi rolled her eyes, moving the fruit box further away.
Yu Gui watched her animated expression, secretly sighing that love really could make people softer, but thinking of the message on her phone from this morning, the young person sighed imperceptibly.
“What’s wrong?” Lu Qingshi put down her toothpick.
“If Captain Gu was being ambiguous with other girls, what would you do?”
Lu Qingshi frowned and pondered this question for a moment: “She wouldn’t.”
Yu Gui clutched her chest, dying.
She was wrong, she really shouldn’t have tried to discuss relationship issues with Lu Qingshi – not only would she get shut down, but she’d have to eat dog food (Chinese slang for being forced to watch others’ public displays of affection).
With a boom, Gu Yanzhi parked her motorcycle at the hospital entrance. She had just taken off her helmet but hadn’t gotten off when an ambulance brushed past her. At the same time, Lu Qingshi’s phone on the table started vibrating, and several people stood up simultaneously and started running outside.
“Patient, female, 32 years old, gunshot wound…” the 120 command center operator was still chattering away while Lu Qingshi just stared blankly at the person being wheeled in through the green channel lying on the stretcher, face pale and bloodless, chest soaked with blood, as Xiang Nanke rushed over to grab her wrist.
“Doctor Lu, save her! Please save her…” Xiang Nanke was also injured, her whole body soaked as if pulled from water, crying in front of her.
Lu Qingshi snapped back to reality, clenching her teeth with reddening eyes, grabbing the wheeled bed and running toward the operating room: “To the OR, hurry!”
Gu Yanzhi also ran into the hospital, grabbing Xiang Nanke’s collar: “What happened?!”
“I… I… sorry…” The usually strong person couldn’t even get half a sentence out, and as soon as she let go, she collapsed on the ground, covering her face and sobbing.
“It wasn’t… wasn’t my gun… I’m sorry to her… I’m sorry…”
That shot indeed wasn’t fired by her – it happened when she tried to die together with Old Bao, when she hugged him and jumped into the sea, Bao Fengnian pulled the trigger. The bullet went through her chest, piercing her lung lobe. Due to the close range, multiple organs were damaged. Yu Gui looked at the scans and felt dizzy.
Lu Qingshi knelt on the wheeled bed to complete the tracheal intubation. Fresh blood kept spurting out while she squeezed the balloon. Her eyes reddened as she shouted: “Drainage, hurry!”
“Blood pressure 40-60, heart rate 70, oxygen saturation 80, tracheal intubation completed, general anesthesia done, connected to ATLS (Advanced Trauma Life Support)”
By the time the chief surgeon finished scrubbing in, the anesthesiologist had completed most preparations. The vital signs monitor kept alarming, values extremely unstable, with respiratory failure several times forcing them to turn the oxygen flow to maximum.
This was an extremely rigorous battle that they absolutely couldn’t lose.
Lu Qingshi rushed into the operating room first, followed closely by her team and the consulting trauma surgeons.
The shadowless lamp snapped on, everyone’s expressions grave. Lu Qingshi took a deep breath: “Let’s begin”
“Scalpel”
She made a long incision from the sternum to the lower abdomen, using gauze to wipe away the seeping blood.
“Chest retractor” Yu Gui used the retractor to open the chest cavity, blood immediately gushed out, instantly filling the 500ml blood collection container.
Lu Qingshi didn’t look up, passing back the scalpel: “Monopolar electrocautery, and go check if the blood has arrived?!”
The circulating nurse ran out, returning shortly with an anxious face: “Blood bank is critically low, we only have this much AB type plasma!”
Two bags totaling 400ml. Lu Qingshi took a deep breath and shouted: “Postpone all other surgeries! Squeeze out a thousand units of blood even if you have to squeeze it from between your teeth (Chinese expression meaning to obtain something by any means necessary)! If our hospital doesn’t have it, get it from the blood bank!!!!”
“Yes, Director Lu!”
The young nurse ran out again with reddened eyes.
Bao Fengnian’s gun wasn’t a traditional handgun, but a homemade modified weapon, and the bullets were shotgun pellets. X-rays showed at least ten fragments embedded deep in the tissues, with the closest one less than three millimeters from the heart.
Yu Gui put down the scalpel, a thin layer of sweat on her forehead: “Gauze”
The bullet had not only pierced the lung lobe but also penetrated the right lobe of the liver, an area dense with blood vessels. The bleeding wouldn’t stop, and in the blink of an eye, two blood collection containers were full.
Yu Gui looked at the pale-faced Qin Xuan with tubes inserted, almost crying out. She couldn’t understand how, after being gone just a few days, she had one foot in the gates of hell (Chinese expression meaning near death).
“Use the balloon tamponade to block the abdominal aorta, Yu Gui!” Lu Qingshi’s hands didn’t stop as she gently used forceps to remove the fragment embedded in the sternum, sparing a glance at her with reddened eyes.
“Don’t just stand there, we have a lot to do”
She looked at the unconscious Qin Xuan, silently thinking: you still owe me so many coffees, you absolutely, absolutely cannot break your promise, Qin Xuan, hang in there!
Yu Gui connected the syringe to the rubber tubing, using hemostats to insert it into her abdominal cavity.
The fragment embedded in the heart’s edge was tricky, especially without blood – pulling it out could cause fatal hemorrhage, but leaving it in meant the heart could stop at any moment.
“Director Lu, shall we use extracorporeal circulation?” a doctor suggested.
Lu Qingshi shook her head: “It won’t help much. Extracorporeal circulation can only last two hours at most. None of us here can completely repair the lung damage, atrial damage, and liver lobe damage within two hours, and due to the bullet’s massive impact force causing retroperitoneal bleeding, it’s almost an impossible task. The urgent priority is still getting blood.”
“Hemostats” The instrument nurse handed over the hemostats, which she inserted into the chest cavity, not daring to loosen her grip: “There’s no time to wait for blood from the blood bank. Go ask if anyone in our department has AB blood type, they must be healthy with no medical history. We’ll transfuse it immediately after basic filtering and purification.”
“I’ll go,” Hao Renjie took off his cap and ran out: “Who has AB blood type? Come register with me!”
Xiang Nanke stood up abruptly: “Me, I’ll go.”
He looked at her injured arm: “You? No way, you need surgery too.”
“I…” she bit her lip, stumbling forward a few steps: “I can… I’m AB type too, just had a physical last week, no medical history, take mine.”
Hao Renjie hesitated, but looking around, those who came to register either had incompatible blood types or there was one pregnant colleague. He gritted his teeth: “Alright, it’ll be you, but Director Lu needs to check you first.”
The nurse held up Xiang Nanke’s blood work and biochemistry results in front of her. Lu Qingshi glanced at them, then looked at her wrist wound: “Through-and-through wound, no fragments embedded inside?”
Xiang Nanke shook her head, the nurse had already done basic debridement and bandaging: “No, I deliberately avoided vital areas when I shot, the bullet just grazed me.”
“Good, drink this glucose water first.” Xiang Nanke changed into scrubs, the nurse brought her the sugar water, which she downed in one gulp, then bent her arm.
“Let’s do it.”
The sharp needle slowly pierced into her skin, dark red blood flowing through the centrifuge before being transfused back into Qin Xuan’s body.
“Blood pressure rising, oxygen levels coming up too,” the anesthesiologist’s excited voice rang out.
“Good, let’s speed up.”
“4.0 absorbable suture,” the nurse pushed the loaded needle holder into her hand.
“Monopolar electrocautery,” Yu Gui handed back the hemostats.
The electrocautery made a beeping sound, and smoke rose in the operating room.
“This is…” the vascular surgeon frowned.
Lu Qingshi glanced over: “Brachial artery injury at the branch point, we’ll repair it with ipsilateral vein graft.”
“Good, surgical scissors.”
The operating table was never a one-person battle, but a team fight. Their opponent was death itself, and they had only one goal: they absolutely couldn’t lose.
With this belief, Lu Qingshi slowly used forceps to grip the fragment embedded near the heart. Instantly, a column of blood spurted up, blurring the magnifying glass.
She directly pressed gauze against it, without much hesitation grabbed hemostats and inserted them, the teeth closing perfectly tight, yet blood still rushed into the collection container with a whoosh.
She looked back at Xiang Nanke: “Can you still manage?”
They had already drawn 400ml of whole blood, and the person sitting in the chair was pale, with large beads of sweat on her forehead. She gritted her teeth: “It’s fine, I can hold on until the surgery ends.”
The centrifuge started running again, but this couldn’t continue.
“Go check if the blood has arrived yet, if it doesn’t come soon we’re all f*cked!”
The usually calm person rarely cursed, and the young nurse quickly ran out again.
Fingers worked rapidly under the shadowless lamp, opening and closing, moving and shifting, each movement precise and quick. Lu Qingshi kept her head down, her eyes sharp and determined. Nurses occasionally wiped her sweat, but she didn’t even furrow her brow.
“Lung lobe repair complete, atrial damage fixed.” While others were only halfway done, Lu Qingshi had already completed the core procedures.
“So fast…” the other surgeon was shocked.
“Come, switch positions. You handle the remaining chest cavity cleaning and suturing.”
The two switched places, Lu Qingshi stood beside Yu Gui. The young person worked seriously, head down, completely immersed in their own world.
Lu Qingshi took the ultrasonic scalpel: “Well done. Repair the liver damage like this, be careful not to pull the vascular sutures too tight.”
“I understand.” The two exchanged glances, Lu Qingshi bent down to deal with the peritoneal damage, resecting the locally necrotic colon, deftly tying a knot.
Xiang Nanke watched her lying on the operating table between life and death, yet in her mind appeared the last smile she had given her.
She had said: “Goodbye, Xiang Nanke.”
She had never properly called her name before, either playfully calling her “Officer Xiang” or angrily shouting “Xiang Nanke!”
It was the first time she’d been so gentle with her, but before she could fully appreciate it, she fell into the azure sea with that criminal.
She truly wanted to die. After witnessing Old Bao’s cruelty and ruthlessness, she knew she couldn’t change him, so she chose to die with him – the most extreme romance, but for Xiang Nanke, it was the cruelest torture.
Qin Xuan always had a place in her heart for Bao Fengnian. No matter how hard she tried, those years they missed could never be made up.
She couldn’t change this fact, but she jumped in after her anyway, swimming with all her might to reach her, holding her up from the seafloor, heading upward. The azure seawater turned bloody, and just as her strength was about to give out, the frogman unit arrived and rescued them. At that moment, holding her cold body, she cried like a child.
Her body grew limp, the untreated wound began to infect and fever set in. Xiang Nanke’s vision gradually blurred. The centrifuge stopped working, and she vaguely heard someone say “surgery successful.”
Her heart suddenly relaxed, and she could no longer hold on, collapsing into the chair.
Lu Qingshi put down the scalpel and rushed over: “Quick, get her to the emergency room!”
Hao Renjie rushed in with a stretcher, and several people worked together to lift her onto the bed.
She looked at Yu Gui, who gave her an “OK” hand signal.
“Teacher Lu, you all go ahead.”
Lu Qingshi nodded, kicked off the bed’s brake with one foot and started pushing it at a run. Only suturing was left, she should be fine.
Without realizing it, she had started trusting Yu Gui, entrusting her best friend to her care.
Yu Gui took a deep breath: “6.0 absorbable suture”
She wouldn’t betray Teacher Lu’s trust, nor would she let Qin Xuan die – after all, she was her friend too.
After a seven-hour surgery plus intensive rescue work, Qin Xuan was sent to ICU, and Xiang Nanke stabilized after the blood transfusion.
Lu Qingshi took off her scrubs, revealing a black fitted tank top, her neck slender, the fluorescent lights casting an exquisite beauty on her.
She inserted the key into the locker, taking out her regular clothes. Just as she was about to change, her head suddenly buzzed, and intense pain swept through her body from head to toe.
Bang— The locker door made a crisp sound, items from inside scattered all over the floor, a medicine bottle rolling out. Lu Qingshi slid down against the locker, covered in sweat, reaching out her arm.
Another sharp pain struck, her head feeling like it would explode. Lu Qingshi fell to the ground, the medicine bottle rolling from her palm, colorful pills spilling out.
Yu Gui had just sent Qin Xuan to ICU and was about to change clothes to go off duty. As soon as she opened the locker room door, she saw her lying on the ground and immediately ran over, helping her up: “Teacher Lu! Teacher Lu! Are you alright?! Someone come—”
Lu Qingshi breathed heavily, slowly gripping her wrist: “Don’t… don’t call… I’m fine… get… get me the medicine…”
“Okay, okay, don’t talk, sit here for a moment.” She helped her to the chair, picked up the fallen medicine bottle and looked at it – Acetaminophen tablets, strong painkillers used for various cancer-related pain. The young person’s eyes immediately welled up with tears.
“Teacher Lu…”
“Stop talking…” Lu Qingshi waited a moment until she felt better, then snatched the bottle from her hand, poured out two pills, and swallowed them.
Yu Gui took a bottle of mineral water from her own locker for her, hesitating to speak.
Lu Qingshi leaned her head against the locker, waiting for the medicine to take effect: “Don’t tell anyone about today.”
“Not even Captain Gu—”
“Especially not her.” Lu Qingshi slowly lowered her eyes: “I don’t know how much longer I can live. Just this last period of happiness, Yu Gui, I don’t want to make her sad, do you… understand?”
Seeing her like this, no longer the spirited person of the past, the young person’s eyes immediately welled up with tears, speaking in a lowered voice: “Don’t think I haven’t noticed, your movements were slower than usual on the operating table today. At this rate, I don’t know, don’t know how long…”
Yu Gui wiped tears from her eyes, choking up: “You’re the one who said if you’re sick you should get treatment, not hide from it. How come when it’s your turn, you’re like this? Captain Gu… Captain Gu would be so heartbroken… she loves you so much… you two finally got together…”
As an observer, Yu Gui had witnessed their love grow from nothing. Two people who cherished each other gradually grew closer. It was Gu Yanzhi who made her softer, and it was Lu Qingshi who made Gu Yanzhi’s life more complete. Such a beautiful love – how could she bear it? Once dead, everything would be gone!
Lu Qingshi quietly watched her crying face, slightly curving her lips: “Honestly, I struggled with whether to accept her or not, because with my condition, not knowing how long I can live, whether it’s fair to her. But you know, there’s no such thing as fairness in love.”
“I couldn’t refuse her kindness, nor could I refuse my own heart. I’m completely ordinary – turns out being sick really makes you afraid. Afraid no one will remember you, afraid of not leaving any trace of having existed in this world. But it’s okay, I know she’ll remember, that’s enough. Being able to live in her memories is what makes me happiest.”
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